APPLICATION OF PROJECT BASED LEARNING IN THE DISCIPLINE OF LOGISTICS: A
CASE STUDY
Dn. Paulo César Chagas
Rodrigues
Univ. Estadual Paulista (UNESP/FEG) - Brazil
E-mail: pauloccr@feb.unesp.br
Submission: 12/03/2011
Accept: 23/04/2011
Abstract
Currently the higher education institutions need to
search for new tools and methods to make learning more enjoyable and dynamic
for students because the job market increasingly needs young people who have
the ability to self-criticism above average. A search was performed on a course
of action and technologist who had a total of 15 students, for the purpose of
this research was to improve the learning level of students, reducing absenteeism
and dropout, encourage research and participation in teamwork. As a way to
develop this study the students had to develop a project of a bridge made of
newspaper and involving the disciplines of logistics, financial management,
human resource management and managing projects.
Palavras-chaves: project based learning; technologist; team; disciplines
1 INTRODUçÃO
It was observed that
students had to leave the comfort zone, in which the candidate has the
discipline and is concerned with learning. With the PBL students had to devote
more time to learning, since the end of the semester they were required to
produce a design that is feasible.
We also observed that
PBL allows the application of multidisciplinary projects, ie, the project was
for the discipline of logistics, but they had to worry about observing and
studying mathematical finance (cost), human resource management and project
management.
The objective of this
research is to improve the level of student learning, reduce absenteeism, and
encourage research and participation in team work.
This is an action research, in which he sought to create a new dynamic of
class, with new evaluation metrics and allowing interference in the regulatory
discipline in the course of technology.
2
Project based learning
Venville, et al. (2000) in their case study that focused
on three pairs of students who work together in an integrated mathematics and
science project, found that student learning was enhanced as a result of
collaboration and communication among peers. Students were able to research in
mathematical sciences and relevant concepts that were sometimes beyond the
expertise of the teacher. In addition, the students developed ideas for further
research and studies, as a result of the project team.
Project Based Learning (PBL) is an effective educational
approach. It focuses on creative thinking, problem solving, and interaction
with fellow students to create and use new knowledge. Notably, this is done in
a context of dialogue, active science with supervisors who are active
researchers (BERENFELD, 1996; MARCHAIM, 2001).
The point, then, PBL is to reverse this relationship:
engage students in real-world projects through which they learn the math and
science formulas and laws on which our world is increasingly built. No matter
whether the schools have low achievement of students or students with high
yield, a high percentage of students find that working with real-world projects
to be exciting, engaging, fun, fulfilling and meaningful. And, research
indicates (SCHNEIDER et al., 2002)
that by this method, they learn at a deeper level (and not learning at a deeper
level is one of the weaknesses of our national education system (DART et al., 1999; TOBIN; GALLAGHER, 1987) to
learn from our traditional teaching methods. Thus, we see PBL as one of
powerful tools that educators can use in classrooms to increase equity and
excellence in education worldwide.
According to Asan and Haliloglu (2005), in PBL the
teacher acts as facilitator in designing activities and providing resources and
advice to students. Students collect and analyze information, make discoveries,
and communicate their results. Projects are often interdisciplinary, with teams
of various sizes and in different locations work on projects. Instruction and
facilitation is guided by a broad range of teaching objectives. PBL provides an
environment of trust in which teachers can help students increase their skills
through cooperative learning and collaboration in solving problems.
According to Chen and Chen (2007), the growing popularity
of PBL can be found in some polls, including the study of science and
mathematics learning, multimedia production (LIU, HSIAO, 2001; LIU, 2003; YANG,
2003), Principles Design of PBL (BARRON et
al., 1998), motivation (Blumenfeld, et al, 1991; CHEN; MCGRATH, 2003),
collaborative learning (DAY, LOU; VAN SLYKE, 2004; HARGIS, 2005; MARCHAIM,
2001) online community of students (MURPHY, GAZI, 2001), and professional
development services for teachers (FRANK; BARZILAI, 2004; ROSENFELD, BEN-HUR,
2001; Toolin, 2004).
3 eSTUDO DE CASO
This case study was conducted in a tertiary institution,
located in the state of Sao Paulo in a course of higher technological level,
this study lasted 6 months.
The course was held in which the research is the
technology in sugarcane production, which had approximately 15 students
enrolled in the semester and had about 8 courses.
Of the eight courses taught in the semester were chosen
disciplines of logistics, financial management, human resource management and
project management, since they had a curriculum that could be chained.
The logistics discipline has served as the basis for the
practice of PBL, because this subject had a load of 4 hours per week, and it
might occur interdisciplinary between the other three disciplines.
The project developed by the students was to build a
bridge of paper on which they should do cost assessment and feasibility, this
project they had to define how the bridge would be built, what factors might
affect the same, size, but watching width x length x height to end and that
supports the weight of a book.
In Figure 1 gives an outline of how the bridge would be,
not being students of civil engineering, was not given emphasis on the specific
aspects, but it would be easy to achieve the goals.
Illustration 1: Sketch of
how the bridge would be constructed of newspaper
The project began with a PBL curriculum restructuring of
the disciplines involved, was proposed in which a larger load of theoretical
and practical component to support the project.
In the practical component could be defined as a project,
building a bridge of paper on which students with the support of the teachers
involved had to create the schedule for implementation, with the costs and
criteria for evaluating performance of those involved, this review occurred
weekly and was 360.
Since the theoretical component allowed to support PBL,
through the theories that each discipline had to teach, only in condensed form
and to allow students to apply during the project, was also set a time to
support questions, which was not included in the timetable. The workload for
each subject was divided according to Table 1.
Table1:
disciplines and their division between the components
|
Discipline |
Practical Component (hs) |
Theoretical Component (hs) |
|
|
Logistics |
2 |
2 |
0 |
|
Financial Management |
1 |
0 |
1 |
|
Human Resource
Management |
2 |
1 |
1 |
|
Project Management |
1 |
1 |
0 |
During the PBL were involved all 15 students, which had
distinct roles within the team in some individual cases, but were running
everywhere and practice together in a cohesive manner.
We divided the students into three teams of five students
who worked three areas of competence of the logistics, they are: logistics
supply, production and distribution. Within each area, they had to worry about
doing the survey cost, integration of team members, lead-time process,
compliance with the requirements of the project, among other factors.
As for the evaluation of students was given weights for
each subject as the components and processes that made up the PBL. Table 2 can
be seen these criteria.
Table 2:
Distribution of the evaluation of PBL
|
Variables |
Evaluation |
|||
|
|
Theoretical |
Practical |
Support |
Assessment 360º |
|
Logistics |
0,20 |
0,50 |
0,10 |
0,20 |
|
Financial Management |
0,30 |
0,30 |
0,20 |
0,20 |
|
Human Resource
Management |
0,20 |
0,20 |
0,10 |
0,50 |
|
Project Management |
0,30 |
0,30 |
0,20 |
0,20 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
The theoretical evaluation was divided into two parts,
the first with a written test on the whole the theory exposed in the classroom
and the second based on reports prepared by them, where they had to expose all
the details about the processes, this evaluation was applied orally as a team
and then individually.
4 CONSIDERAÇÕES FINAIS
It was observed that interdisciplinary with this class
proved fruitful, as the students began to understand the purpose of each
discipline in the course, there was also a greater cohesion among the subjects
who participated in the PBL, we observed the need for uniformity plans and
classroom teaching.
Part practices introduced by PBL, proved adequate to the
needs of the course of a technologist, because students must have a greater
burden in relation to practice and should have a theoretical understanding on
the application of scientific theories in everyday organizations.
It might be considered more specifically in this course
subjects can be grouped to allow over the course of the academic years students
have to develop phases of PBL.
It was observed that the students had a better
utilization, increased self-esteem, the critical view about the processes
running on the day-to-day organizations.
This being studied curriculum change of this course, with
the inclusion of PBL as a primary stage, so there should be greater monitoring
of students in the first year course.
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